‘It will all be forgotten tomorrow.’
‘Don’t count on it,’ Georgina said. ‘Everyone in this place has it on their hand-held device. I’ve got it on mine. We’ll be sharing it for months to come.’
His opinion of humanity at large had always been low, and now it took another dive. ‘Did you call me in about this nonsense, ma’am?’
‘If you want a straight answer, yes. I’m trying to restore some dignity to our department. We need to be clear about what happens next in this affair. The eyes of the world are on us. One more episode like yesterday and we might as well all hand in our resignations. What are you doing about the man in the loft?’
‘Nothing.’
‘I beg your pardon.’
‘It’s not a CID matter. There’s no crime I’m aware of. Someone from uniform should take over.’
‘But you promised to report on further developments. It’s in the paper.’
‘I promised nothing. Some pressman made that up. Anyhow, the building’s unsafe. Until the scaffolding is in place no one can get at him without dropping through the floor.’
‘We don’t know for certain how he died.’
‘And we may never know, ma’am. Anyone can see it’s an ancient set of bones. It’s history, almost archaeology.’
‘I’m surprised to hear you talk like this, Peter. There are deeply troubling elements in the case. How did the poor man come to be shut in the loft in the first place?’
‘I doubt if we’ll ever know. He could have gone up there for some peace and quiet, in which case he has my sympathy.’
‘He was in a wooden armchair, I gather?’
‘Probably in the habit of using it as a bolt-hole.’
‘And died there?’
‘It happens. Not a bad way to go, sitting in your favourite chair.’
‘Was he elderly?’
‘Hard to tell from where I was.’
‘You must have seen his teeth.’
‘He hasn’t got any.’
‘In that case he must be old. Mind you, “old” was probably about forty in those days. I can’t think how he could have remained undiscovered so long.’
‘I expect he lived alone.’
‘You’re not convincing me, Peter. I get the impression you’re doing your best to portray this death as natural so that you can be shot of it.’
‘Someone else might enjoy taking it on. As for me I seem to have made a right balls-up. I only got involved because it was an unexplained death and now I’m thinking it would be better from every point of view if I tiptoed away.’
Georgina drew herself up in her chair in a way that brought stress to her silver buttons and Diamond at the same time. ‘You’ve never tiptoed anywhere and you won’t now. I want this death investigated properly and you will be in charge. Thanks to your tomfoolery we’re under intense scrutiny now. You attracted all this media attention and you can deal with it. Have the building treated as a crime scene. See that the remains are collected and given a postmortem. No shortcuts. Get to it, Peter.’
He knew when it was useless to interrupt. ‘Tomfoolery’ was below the belt, but he let it pass. In this mood Georgina was implacable.
Only one space in Concorde House was suitable for a private session with the entire CID team. Known as the meeting room, it was so little used it still smelt of paint, but nobody complained when they gathered around the large table. They were pleased to get away from their computer screens.
Diamond could have taken a seat like the rest of them, but he chose to stand. His authority had been dented and he felt the need to remind them who was boss. ‘I know what you’ve got on your mobile phones,’ he said, getting straight to the source of his indignity. ‘That photographer shouldn’t have been on the site yesterday and if it takes me the rest of this year I’m going to find out who he is and stuff his Nikon where the sun never shines.’ He paused and switched to a more reasoned tone. ‘But that’s not what this is about. I just came out of a meeting with the ACC and she has instructed us to investigate the death of the skeleton in the loft. If, like me, you’re thinking we’re about three hundred years too late, then think again. To quote Georgina, the eyes of the world are on us. She wants a result.’
‘What kind of result?’ Halliwell asked. ‘We’re not going to find his name.’
Negativity like that from any of them would have been deplorable. From Keith, his deputy, it came as a shock.
‘Get with it, all of you,’ Diamond said, slamming one hand on the table and making a fist of the other. ‘We’re professionals. We’ve faced bigger challenges than this. Who knows what we might find when we pull out all the stops? We haven’t searched his pockets and we haven’t sent in the scenes of crime team yet.’
‘Was there a crime?’ John Leaman asked. He was the logic man ever ready to pick holes. Like Halliwell, he needed bringing into line.
‘That’s what we need to find out.’
Leaman raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
Now Sergeant Ingeborg Smith spoke up, and she wasn’t entirely unhelpful. ‘Is the body still in place, guv?’
‘Can’t call it a body or John will object. Bones is all it is. Yes, it’s there, but no longer on public view. Scaffolding and a canopy are being erected as we speak. The trouble is that the whole building is dangerously unstable and they can’t work from inside. He’ll have to remain there until we find a safe way to remove him.’
‘A crane?’ Leaman said.
‘For lifting a skeleton? No way. It would fall apart and leave us with a heap of bones. There must be people who specialise in this kind of recovery exercise. It’s delicate work.’
‘The Velvet Glove Pick-up People,’ Halliwell said.
‘Where are they based?’
‘Joke.’
‘What?’
‘I’m trying to lower the tension.’
He glared at Halliwell. Maybe that was really the intention. Better give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘I walked into that, didn’t I? Well, I’m dead serious.’ He switched attention to Ingeborg. ‘See if you can locate someone capable of taking this on.’
She gave a nod and touched the controls on her tablet.
Diamond told Leaman to research the history of the house. ‘I assume it was built in the eighteenth century. There may be documents in the local records office.’
‘If it’s that old, it must be listed,’ Leaman said. ‘I’ll try the Preservation Trust.’ Try them he would, in more ways than one. Nobody was more thorough than Leaman. He’d pester the life out of the people in the records office and the trust.
‘Good thinking.’ Diamond didn’t mind giving credit for a positive contribution, the first indication that he might be winning the team over. ‘Looking ahead, when we succeed in recovering the body, we’ll insist on a proper postmortem. Just because the corpse is reduced to bones, I don’t want some junior doctor given the job. See that we get the best available, Keith.’
It almost went without saying that Halliwell would be the police presence at the autopsy. He regularly stood in for his squeamish boss when the pathologist was at work on a body. ‘We might be better off with a forensic anthropologist.’
‘Oh yes?’ The big man was wary. He’d taken more than enough flak from his deputy this morning. ‘What’s that when it’s at home?’
‘A bones man.’
He gave a nod. Halliwell might be trying to redeem himself. ‘Good thinking. Is there one locally?’
‘Must be. I’ll make enquiries.’
‘You can find out a lot from bones,’ Leaman said.
Ingeborg looked up from her internet search. ‘You watch far too much TV.’
‘Then there are the clothes,’ Diamond said, ‘what’s left of them. A fashion expert can tell you within five years or so when a garment was made. I happen to know someone who can help here.’